The Mister Purple writes: It appears that a team of German researchers has cracked the GMR-1 and GMR-2 encryption algorithms used by many (though not all) satellite phones, as described by this article in The Telegraph. Anyone fancy putting a cluster together for a listening party?

Mr Driessen told The Telegraph that the equipment and software needed to intercept and decrypt satellite phone calls from hundreds of thousands of users would cost as little as $2,000. His demonstration system takes up to half an hour to decipher a call, but a more powerful computer would allow eavesdropping in real time, he said.